Tiltable converter

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a tiltable converter, which by means of supporting elements, accommodating supporting and tilting forces is borne on a carrying ring of box-shaped profile, provided with two hollow supporting trunnions, lying opposite each other. Supporting disks, assigned to the supporting trunnions, engage in bearing eyes, secured to the converter casing, and are axially movable by means of shifting devices, penetrating the bores of the supporting trunnions. Each supporting disk is capable of being connected by means of a quickly detachable connecting means with the pertaining shifting device, through the operation of which the supporting disk is - while maintaining its engagement in the bearing eye - engageable and disengageable with a cylindrical or inclined conical seating, arranged at the supporting trunnion. It is the object of the invention to provide a homogeneous construction of the carrying ring, without large recesses having to be provided for the reception of the supporting disks. The supporting forces are to be introduced direct into the supporting trunnions without the detour via the carrying ring.

United States Patent [1 1 Eysn . 51 July 22, 1975 TILTABLE CONVERTER [75] Inventor: Manfred Eysn, Linz, Austria [73] Assignee: Vereinigte Osterreichische Eisenund Stahlwerke Alpine Montan Aktiengesellschaft, Linz, Austria [22] Filed: July 2, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 485,296

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data July 12, 1973 Austria 6131/73 [52] U.S. Cl. 266/36 P [51] Int. Cl. C2lc 5/46 [58] Field of Search 266/35, 36 P, 36 H [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,635,458 1/1972 Puhringer 266/36 P Primary Examiner-Gerald A. Dost Attorney, Agent, or FirmBrumbaugh, Graves, Donohue & Raymond [57] ABSTRACT The invention relates to a tiltable converter, which by means of supporting elements, accommodating supporting and tilting forces is borne on a carrying ring of box-shaped profile, provided with two hollow supporting trunnions, lying opposite each other. Supporting disks, assigned to the supporting trunnions, engage in bearing eyes, secured to the converter casing, and are axially movable by means of shifting devices. penetrating the bores of the supporting trunnions. Each supporting disk is capable of being connected by means of a quickly detachable connecting means with the pertaining shifting device, through the operation of which the supporting disk is while maintaining its engagement in the bearing eye engageable and disengageable with a cylindrical or inclined conical seating. arranged at the supporting trunnion. It is the object of the invention to provide a homogeneous construction of the carrying ring, without large recesses having to be provided for the reception of the supporting disks. The supporting forces are to be introduced direct into the supporting trunnions without the detour via the carrying ring.

8 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures PATENTED JUL 2 2 ms SHEET mm Q22;

SHEET PATENTEDJUL 22 m5 FIG.2

TILTABLE CONVERTER The invention relates to a tiltable converter, which, by means of supporting elements, accommodating supportingand tilting forces is borne on a carrying ring of preferably box-shaped profile, said carrying ring being provided with two hollow supporting trunnions lying opposite each other, wherein supporting disks assigned to the supporting trunnions engage in bearing eyes, se cured to the converter casing and are axially movable by means of shifting devices running through the bores of the supporting trunnions.

From Austrian Patent Specification No. 271,527 supporting elements for a converter are known, which are annular bearing eyes, connected with the converter casing, into which bearing eyes supporting disks, connected with the carrying ring, project. The Austrian Patent Specification No. 293,456 describes an embodiment of this supporting-disk suspension for exchange converter vessels. These are converters that are not relined in the blowing stand of a steel works, but in a separate lining stand, so that in the blowing stand always hangs a converter ready for operation; it is therefore essential that exchange converter vessels be always easily mountable into and easily removable from the carrying ring surrounding them, without careful adjustment operations and complicated manipulations being necessary.

In the construction according to Austrian Patent Specification No. 293,456, at that spot of the carrying ring, which is subjected to the heaviest stress, where the supporting forces are being introduced, relatively big recesses are provided in the carrying ring, so that for removing the converter the supporting disks may be retracted from the bearing eyes, secured to the converter casing, into these recesses, whereupon the converter vessel may be lowered in vertical direction through the carrying ring, using a corresponding liftingand transporting device, and may be removed from the blowing stand. It is a natural feature of this supporting-disk suspension that these supporting disks, which engage with play into the assigned bearing eyes, be as large as possible and that the supporting surface be maintained as wide as possible. Another demand which such converter constructions have to meet is that the carrying ring provided, as a rule, with a box-shaped profile, be constructed as light as possible; the carrying ring should also have a profile shaped as uniform as possible all around; large recesses are therefore not advantageous and require special constructional and productional measures, which raise the production cost of the carrying ring and increase its weight. Finally, in the total construction of converter and carrying ring one has to consider especially that, as a consequence of different warming of converter casing and carrying ring during operation or within a converter journey, respectively, these construction units be sufficiently movable in radial direction, without having to put up with too great a distance between the supporting bearings of the converter or its supporting trunnions, respectively.

The invention aims at avoiding the aforementioned disadvantages and it is its object to provide in a supporting-disk suspension a so to speak homogeneous construction of the carrying ring, without big recesses for receiving the supporting disks being necessary. Thus the supporting forces are to be introduced direct into the two supporting trunnions without the detour via the carrying ring and in spite of a distance as small as possible between converter casing and carrying ring a path as long as possible for radial displacement of these construction units against each other, caused by heat effects, should be maintained.

In a converter of the above-described type this task is solved according to the invention, in that each supporting disk is capable of being connected by a quickly detachable connecting means, as e.g. a bayonet catch or a coupling, with the pertaining shifting device, through the operation of which the supporting disk while maintaining its engagement in the bearing eye is engageable and disengageable with a cylindrical or inclined, conical seating, provided at the supporting trunnion.

The supporting-disk suspension of the invention will now be described in more detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section through the supportingdisk suspension on the right-hand side of the converter, which side is, in this case, the fixed-bearing side.

FIG. 2 is a section along line 11-11 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a section along line IIIIII of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a section along line IVIV of FIG. 1, and

FIG. 5 is a section along line VV of FIG. 1.

The FIGS. 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d and 6e are schematic illustrations of the process for removing the converter vessel from its carrying ring.

FIG. 7 is an illustration similar to FIG. 1, yet for another embodiment.

In FIG. 1 the converter casing is denoted with l, to which by means of ribs 2 a bearing eye 3 is secured, into which a supporting disk 5 engages with peripheral play 4 (FIG. 2). By means of a bayonet catch 6 or an other easily detachable mechanic coupling the supporting disk 5 is connected with a pull rod 7, which is part of a shifting device and by turning the pull rod or by detaching the coupling the supporting disk 5 can easily be separated from the pull rod 7. In built-in condition of the converter, the supporting disk 5 engages into a conical or also cylindrical seat, wherein it is annularly surrounded by a seating 8 of the hollow supporting trunnion 9. The supporting trunnion 9 penetrates the carrying ring 10 and on the inner side of the carrying ring the supporting trunnion projects slightly towards the converter casing. The conical seating, illustrated in FIG. 1, is inclined towards the center of the converter. The supporting disk 5 is tightened fast against the supporting trunnion 9 by means of the pull rod 7, so that the supporting forces of the converter are at this point introduced direct into the supporting trunnion. The supporting bearing is denoted with 11. The left-hand side of the supporting-disk suspension of the converter is constructed analogously. Vertically in relation to the plane running through the supporting-trunnion axis a further supporting device, accommodating tilting forces, is provided between the converter casing 1 and the carrying ring 10. At the fixed-bearing side, illustrated in FIG. 1, the tilting drive is secured to the supporting trunnion 9. The center line of the drive pinion is denoted with 12. 13 denotes lateral stops secured to the carrying ring 10 and 14 is a pin at the supporting disk 5, said stops and said pin constituting a safety against distortion (FIGS. 2, 3) 15 is a similar stop, secured to the converter casing l, which stop cooperates with a recess 16 on the inner side of the supporting disk 5, when as will be described later on the supporting disk 5 is shifted towards the converter casing 1 and is separated from the pull rod 7. For the axial shifting of the pull rod 7 guide disks 17 within the supporting trunnion 9 are provided. 18 is a detachably mounted crosshead, which is supported by the front surface 29 of the supporting trunnion 9, where also threaded spindles 19, 20 are fastened. Nuts 21, 22 cooperating with claws 23, 24 (FIG. 5) of a cage 25, connected with the pull rod 7, serve for the axial shifting of the entire shifting device with the supporting disk 5 away from the seating 8 towards the converter casing l, the crosshead 18, against which the cage 25 is supported, having been removed. Within the cage 25 a hydraulic lifting cylinder 26 is provided, which, when the crosshead 18 is in built-in condition, has the task of firmly pressing the pull rod 7, together with the supporting disk 5, against the seating 8, the cylinder 26 being supported by the crosshead 18. For the example illustrated in the drawing, where the converter has an outer diameter of about 4 m and the supporting disks have an outer diameter of 1500 mm, the hydraulic lifting cylinder 26 is designed for a carrying capacity (tension) of 400 metric tons and a lifting height of about 50 mm, while the lifting device 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, together with the cage 25 and the hydraulic lifting cylinder 26, are shiftable by 170 mm to the left into the final position of the supporting disk 5 at the converter casing 1 (FIG. 6b) and are then retractable by 420 mm into an original position (FIG. 6d). 27 denotes a pressure-means conduit connectable with a hand pump 28 for the hydraulic lifting cylinder 26. For detaching the connection between the supporting disk 5 and the pull rod 7, the shifting device as a whole has to be turned about its axis by whereupon another pair of claws 30, 31 at the cage 25 engages with the spindles 19, 20 (FIG. 5). 32 is the clearance profile in FIG. 1, Le. the limitation between the foundations, within which the converter may be lifted and lowered; the supporting disk 5 has to bridge the distance between the seating 8 and the bearing eye 3 and always has to stay in engagement therewith.

The functioning of the supporting-disk suspension of the invention is schematically illustrated in FIGS. 6a to 66.

FIG. 6a shows the original position prior to the removal of the converter. This position is identical with the illustration in FIG. 1, i.e. the supporting disk 5 is pressed towards the seating 8 by the cylinder 26, the cylinder 26 being supported by the detachable crosshead 18 and this, in turn, being supported by the front surface 29 of the supporting trunnion 9. As can be seen from FIG. 1, a sufficiently big distance between the carrying disk 5 and the converter casing 1 is present; in this embodiment this distance measures I mm and serves, just the same as the distance between the carrying ring 10, for accommodating heat expansions. The bearing eye 3 is eg 220 mm wide and the outer surface of the supporting disk 5 has at its upper end a width of 340 mm.

In FIG. 6b, after removal of the crosshead 18, the supporting disk is shown in the final position 5; the position of the shifting device is correspondingly denoted with 6', 7, 25, 26.

By turning the shifting device by 45 in direction of the arrow, the bayonet catch is loosened, which is indicated with 6" and 7", 25", 26", respectively, in FIG.

FIG. 6d shows the supporting disk 5' remaining in the bearing eye 3 and the shifting device 7", 25", 26" retracted beyond the clearance profile 32, so that the converter may be lowered (FIG. 62), the position of the converter casing being denoted with 1.

The mounting of the converter is accomplished in reverse order.

In FIG. 7 the supporting disk 5 with its ring 33 lies upon the seating 8' of a conical bushing 34. This bushing 34 is part of the supporting trunnion 35, which is, on the one hand, secured by screws to the outer wall 37 of the carrying ring 10' and is, on the other hand, connected form-locking with the bushing 34; the bushing 34 serves in a way as prolongation of the supporting trunnion 35 and by this bushing the supporting force is introduced direct into the supporting trunnion 35.

What I claim is:

1. A tiltable converter comprising a converter casing,

supporting elements, accommodating supportingand tilting forces,

a carrying ring having two hollow supporting trunnions provided with bores, the supporting trunnions lying opposite each other, on which carrying ring the converter is borne by means of said supporting elements,

supporting disks assigned to the supporting trunnions, said supporting disks engaging in bearing eyes secured to the converter casing, the supporting disks being axially movable by means of shifting devices penetrating the bores of the supporting trunnions, each supporting disk being connectable by a quickly detachable connecting means with the pertaining shifting device and a seating provided at the supporting trunnion, with which the carrying disk is engageable and disengageable by operating the shifting device, while maintaining the engagement of the supporting disk in the bearing eye.

2. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the profile of the carrying ring is box-shaped. 3. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the connecting means is a bayonet catch.

4. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the connecting means is a coupling.

5. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the seating provided at the supporting trunnion is a cylindrical seating.

6. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the seating provided at the supporting trunnion is an inclined conical seating.

7. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the seating is provided at a bushing connected with the supporting trunnion.

8. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the supporting disks are made safe against distortion in relation to the carrying ring and the converter casing by means of stops. 

1. A tiltable converter comprising a converter casing, supporting elements, accommodating supporting- and tilting forces, a carrying ring having two hollow supporting trunnions provided with bores, the supporting trunnions lying opposite each other, on which carrying ring the converter is borne by means of said supporting elements, supporting disks assigned to the supporting trunnions, said supporting disks engaging in bearing eyes secured to the converter casing, the supporting disks being axially movable by means of shifting devices penetrating the bores of the supporting trunnions, each supporting disk being connectable by a quickly detachable connecting means with the pertaining shifting device and a seating provided at the supporting trunnion, with which the carrying disk is engageable and disengageable by operating the shifting device, while maintaining the engagement of the supporting disk in the bearing eye.
 2. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the profile of the carrying ring is box-shaped.
 3. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the connecting means is a bayonet catch.
 4. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the connecting means is a coupling.
 5. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the seating provided at the supporting trunnion is a cylindrical seating.
 6. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the seating provided at the supporting trunnion is an inclined conical seating.
 7. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the seating is provided at a bushing connected with the supporting trunnion.
 8. The tiltable converter set forth in claim 1, wherein the supporting disks are made safe against distortion in relation to the carrying ring and the converter casing by means of stops. 